


hiding from light

by merriell



Series: untitled kwaf spinoff [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Other, Repression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-06-26
Packaged: 2020-05-20 02:18:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19368073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merriell/pseuds/merriell
Summary: SWISS, 1996. Elias and Céleste talk about Oliver when he's not around.





	hiding from light

BEAU SOLEIL, THE GARDEN. 1996.

“There’s one thing that’s bugging my mind.”

Elias, halfway to a cigarette, looked up to where Lessie was perched on the indoor greenhouse swing. She had a short yellow dress on, her coat abandoned somewhere. She was basking in the weak sun of Switzerland’s spring, a retro, cat-eye sunglass covering her eyes from being read. They were alone for once. Oliver had been summoned to the Commons for a visit from his mother.

“What is it?” he asked after Lessie only pushed her Oxfords to the soil, sending her swinging high, her dress swaying under her. He flicked the ash of his cigarette and suddenly found the purple-green gradient of the flower beside him amusing.

“It’s about our dearest Thaddie,” Lessie pushed again and she swung even higher. Her feet were kicking the air. “He never actually told us, even now, what happened that got sent him here.”

“The only reason why we know is your vision,” he put the cigarette between his lips and started plucking the flower petals, more to be able to have a thing to do in his hands rather than anything else. “He’s... reserved. Very reserved. Why should he tell us anything?”

“ _You_ tell him everything,” Lessie suddenly pushed herself off the swing and landed perfectly on her feet. She made a show of it, curtsying into unknown audience before twirling.

“That doesn’t change anything.”

“I have the feeling he doesn’t trust us.”

“Why do you care so much?”

“Why don’t _you_ care? You’re supposed to be his best friend.”

Giving up, he pulled the flower from its stem and the petals he’d been collecting floated slowly to the ground. Lessie was right. Why doesn’t he care more about this? The years had cemented their close friendship, turning them into a pair that always walk the corridors together, more often two-parts of a machine rather than two separate entities. Eli ran and poured into him for every problem he encountered (and caused). Oliver was always there, like his shadow, ready to sneak out of his dorms to spend the night with him somewhere. And yet, it was one way; Oliver was there, but at the same time, he was never _there_.

“I am his best friend,” the flower had left a fluid in his finger that tingled. He pushed his hand to the soil and washed it away.

Behind him, he could feel the sharpness of Lessie’s eyes on him. He didn’t move. The plant in front of him, the one he had plucked a flower from, had slowly turned gray, right to the base of it. He stared at it unhelpfully.

Did he want Oliver to be there?

He had no idea.

He wasn’t used to finding no answer in his questions.

“Eli.”

Her call broke him out of his reverie. Looking up, Lessie was standing beside him, touching the plant as gentle as humans could. When he checked it, the entire plant has turned gray. He didn’t take the Botany course yet, but it might have something to do with the fact that he had plucked the flower.

“I don’t know why you do this, you ruined it,” Lessie muttered as she ran her fingers over the leaf. “You see something you like, you pick it apart, even when you don’t know what you’re doing...”

“An action you don’t think enough could destroy something,” Eli murmured, already turning away and walking back out of the Garden. His mind raced to Oliver, all their late nights and Oliver’s gaze at him. It was a ritual to be with each other. It was _their_ elaborate ritual. He couldn’t ruin it. He just couldn’t be selfish like that.

“Eli—don’t think you can apply that to Oliver! He needs us! He needs to talk about his problems!”

Elias had already stopped listening, leaving the gate to the indoor greenhouse open, leaving Lessie with the cold draft inside.


End file.
